I recommend reading the Symposium on The Failure of the American Baptist Culture (in PDF format) presented by Biblical Horizons for the simple fact that it will get you thinking and will help you understand other points of view that you may not currently hold.
It is a good thing to read and understand other view points to make sure what you believe is best, and it is good to think through views different than yours in order to more fully understand the overall topic at hand. If we’re not even willing to consider whether what we currently believe could be wrong (for lack of better term), then there is yet another more fundamental issue happening.
Below is the introduction and Table of Contents for the Symposium. Below the Table of Contents is the link to the PDF in which the symposium is comprised. At 317 pages, it is a thoughtful read.
The Editor’s Introduction begins,
“The Failure of American Baptist Culture” might seem a puzzling topic for a symposium of essays, but the contention of the editors of Christianity and Civilization is that American culture or civilization has been, in the main, a Baptist modification of old catholic and Reformed culture. The New Christian Right, in its attempts to stem the tide of degeneracy in American life, is a Baptistic movement, and this is the reason why the New Christian Right finds itself in a condition of crisis, confusion, and indeed impotence. The thesis the editors are setting forth, then, is that American Christianity must return to a full-orbed Biblical and Reformed theology, and set aside Baptistic individualism, if it is to have anything to say to modern problems — indeed, if it is to survive.
The purpose of this introduction is to set forth, in broad strokes, the kinds of problems that the various essays in this symposium deal with. This introduction, then, is a kind of road map to the symposium as a whole, and it is our hope that the reader will read this introduction before turning to any of the particular essays of the symposium itself.
EDITORS INTRODUCTION
By James B. Jordan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..v
PART I: THE CRISIS OF AMERICAN BAPTIST CULTURE THE INTELLECTUAL
SCHIZOPHRENIA OF THE NEW CHRISTIAN RIGHT
By Gary North . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . …1
SOCIAL APOLOGETICS
By KevinCraig. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . …41
THE MORAL MAJORITY: AN ANABAPTIST CRITIQUE
(a review of Robert E. Webber’s The Moral Majority: Right or Wrong?)
By James B. Jordan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . …77
OF THE CHRISTIAN MISSION (A Confessional Statement)
By The Association of Reformation Churches. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
MEDIA THEO-POP (a review of Richard Quebedeaux’s By What Authority: The Rise of Personality Cults in American Christianity)
By Michael R. Gilstrap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . …99
PART II: BACKGROUND STUDIES IN BAPTIST THOUGHT AND CULTURE
BAPTISM, REDEMPTIVE HISTORY, AND ESCHATOLOGY: THE PARAMETERS OF DEBATE
B y P. Richard Flinn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . …111
THE BAPTIST FAILURE
By Ray R. Sutton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . …152
CALVINS COVENANTAL RESPONSE TO THE ANABAPTIST VIEW OF BAPTISM
B y Peter A. Lillback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
ASTOROGER WILLIAMSAND HIS’’BANISHMENT” FROM THE MASSACHUSETTS PLANTATION (A Selection)
By Henry Martyn Dexter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . …233
CHRISTIANITY AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY: A LETTER TO THE REVEREND KEMPER D. SMITH
B y Craig S. Bulkeley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . …244
A REFORMED VIEW OF FREEMASONRY
By Everett C. De Velde, Jr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . …277
PART III : REVIEWS OF BOOKS
THE ALCOHOLIC REPUBLIC: AN AMERICAN TRADITION (by W. J. Rorabaugh)
Reviewed by James Michael Peters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . …284
ANABAPTISM AND ASCETICISM: A STUDY IN INTELLECTUAL ORIGINS (by Kenneth Ronald Davis)
Reviewed by Ray R. Sutton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . …287
Click here to check out the symposium in PDF format. Right click and either choose “Save Link As…” (for Firefox users) or “Save Target As…” (for Internet Explorer users).
